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The Idea Of Going Around To Somebody Else's Flat Or House And Sitting Around In A Comfy Room And Having A Really Good Hi-fi System And Listening To A Whole Album All The Way Through, Then Chatting For A Few Minutes, Then Maybe Putting Another Album On . . . Does That Happen Today?

-David Gilmour

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The Idea Of Going

David Gilmour

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The Idea Of Going Around To Somebody Else's Flat Or House And Sitting Around In A Comfy Room And Having A Really Good Hi-fi System And Listening To A Whole Album All The Way Through, Then Chatting For A Few Minutes, Then Maybe Putting Another Album On . . . Does That Happen Today?

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More From David Gilmour

I'm English And I Am British. I Don't Know If I Feel Part Of A Music Scene. Musically, I Have As Many Feelings And Affinity With Americans Or Canadians, Or All Sorts Of People As I Do With English People.

I Find It Incredibly Difficult To Write Anything That's Really Happy.

Subconsciously You Just Pick Up Things Into Your Sort Of Musical Vocabulary And Use Them.

It's Not Whether God Plays Dice; It's How God Plays Dice.

I Listen To Classical Music At Home Probably More Than Pop Music.

Classical Music

I Actually Learned The Guitar With The Help Of A Pete Seeger Instructional Record When I Was 13 Or 14.

I Am Working On Current Material, A New Album, And That Is All Still My Main Motivation Of Going Out And Working. We Haven't Gotten Rid Of All The New Stuff In Favor Of The Old.

Pompeii Is An Extraordinary Place To Be Because It Was Preserved Exactly As It Was. There Are Many Other Sites. If You Visit Any Other Antiquity-type Sites Throughout The World, They're Very Damaged With What's Gone On Over The Centuries Since They Were Abandoned. But This One Was Just, Like, Sealed, So You're Looking At Rock Surfaces And The Carving Of Letters And Names In The Stones Looks Like It Was Done Yesterday.

I Can't Remember Really What It's Like To Do It Within Pink Floyd. In My Mind, That's A Thing Of The Past.

I Think A Lot Of Things Do Influence Me, But The Influence Mechanism Is As Such That These Things Dive Into Your Brain And Bury Themselves Into Your Subconscious And You're Never Quite Sure Where And How They're Going To Emerge. I Don't Think I Really Take Direct Influence.

There Is Irreducible Chance In The Universe.

I Am In A Space Now Where I Can Try Anything; And With Pink Floyd We've Always Been In A Space Where We Were Able To Try Out Anything. I Think We Were Very Young Then And We Were Very Keen To Experiment And Try Things Out. It Seems To Me That This Sort Of Experimenting Is Like Working Yourself Towards Something And Trying To Find What You Like And What You Want.

If You Have A Live Reputation And Your Popularity Is Proven That Way, Then You're Bound To Get Signed Up Because They See All Those People Buying Those Tickets And They Think Some Of Those People Will Buy Those Records, And That's What Their Business Is Primarily About.

Don't Bait Your Breath. That's Bad For Your Health.

We Already Had All The Songs, And It Turns Out All You Have To Do Is Burn Them To Some Cds, So Why Not?

Our Music Has Depth, And Attempts Philosophical Thought And Meaning With Discussions Of Infinity, Eternity And Mortality. There Is A Line Which People Cross That Turns It Into Some Magical, Mystical Realm, For Which I Dont Claim Responsibility And Dont Hold Any Great Truck With.

I Am Not A Technophobe And I Am Using The Latest Technology Today, Some 30-odd Years Later, And I Am Really Enjoying What Some Of The New Technologies Can Offer. But At The Same Time I Am Always Aware That One Can Get Bogged Down In That Technology And That It Can Become More Than Just A Method. That's Something That You Have To Be Slightly Careful Of.

It's Crazy That America Gives Such A Paltry Percentage Of Its Gnp To The Starving Nations.

Usually, In The Studio, On This Sort Of Thing... You Just Go Out And Have A Play Over It, And See What Comes, And It's Usually - Mostly - The First Take That's The Best One, And You Find Yourself Repeating Yourself Thereafter.

Finding Yourself

Obviously, They're All A Gang Of Idiots. But, You Know... Live And Let Live.

Live And Let Live

I Mean, I Have Moments Of Huge Frustration Because Of My Inability To Express Myself Linguistically As Clearly As I Would Like To.

Adrian Maben Came To Us With The Idea. And We Just Thought, "well, Why Not?" I Don't Think Any Of Us Thought It Would Be As Well Received And Last In People's Minds For As Long As It Did. All Credit To Him. It's His Idea [pink Floyd At Pompeii] And It Was Great.

I Don't Want To Be A Full-time Member Of Pink Floyd All My Life.

You Know, Once You've Had That Guitar Up So Loud On The Stage, Where You Can Lean Back And Volume Will Stop You From Falling Backward, That's A Hard Drug To Kick.

If People Would Like To Come To My Concerts I'd Love Them To Come. And If They Like The Music That I Make, I Love That Too. But I Do Not Make Music For Other People. I Make It To Please Myself.

These Days I Don't Look To Other People With The Objective Of Trying To Steal Their Licks, Although I've Got No Objections To Stealing Them If That Seems Like A Good Idea. I'm Sure That I'm Still Influenced By Mark Knopfler And Eddie Van Halen As Well......i Can't Play Like Eddie Van Halen. I Wish I Could. I Sat Down To Try Some Of Those Ideas And Can't Do It. I Don't Know If I Could Ever Get Any Of That Stuff Together. Sometimes I Think I Should Work At The Guitar More.

Personally, I'm Not Very Keen On The Visualization Of Absolutely Everything.

I Tend To Jot Down Music.

I Have No Interest In Going On A Tour To Make Money Without Making New Product, New Art.

I Went To A School In Cambridge, Which I Thought Was Completely Rotten. Yes, Hated It. Now They Want Me To Go Back There And Support This, That, And The Other And I Haven't Managed To Pluck Up The Courage To Even Face It Yet.

I Don't Even Think Whether I Play The Blues Or Not, I Just Play Whatever Feels Right At The Moment.

I've Been In The Who, I've Been In The Beatles And I've Been In Pink Floyd! Top That!

For Me, Gradually Over The Years, You Refined Your Tastes In The Way You Do Things And It Becomes Maybe Less Experimental.

We Mixed The Sounds Ourselves. If They Were Going To Put The Sound Back Onto Our Film [pink Floyd: Live At Pompeii.], We Wanted To Mix It Ourselves.

I'm Afraid I Haven't Become A Born-again Christian. I'm Sort Of 'church Of England, Lapsed' Is About As Far As I Go.

Yes, There's A Lot Of The Blues In My Playing.

No One Can Replace Richard Wright. He Was My Musical Partner And My Friend.

Being A Solo Artist Is What I Do. It's What I've Been Doing For The Last 20 Years And A Bit Before Then.

Everything In Moderation - That's What I Live By.

Everything In Moderation

I Haven't Felt Compelled To Go Back In The Studio And Do Anything Serious. I Have A Little Sort Of Home Studio Thing Which I Potter About In Occasionally.

I Don't Have A Very Disciplined Approach To Practicing Or Anything, But I Do Tend To Have A Guitar Around Most Of The Time, Which I Strum On Most Of The Day.

God Created A System Which Gave Us Freewill.

I’m Not Interested In Teaching Books By Women.

People In Italy Seem To Be Very Capable Of Singing Along With 'wish You Were Here' Perfectly, Yet It's Hard To Get Someone In The Street Who Speaks English.

It's Not True That You Fall In Love Only Once In Your Life. But It Is True That You Only Fall In Love A Certain Way, With A Certain Absoluteness, Once.

Falling In Love

I've Sort Of Remarried A Few Years Ago And Have Had A Couple More Children In The Last Couple Of Years. And So Home Life Is Taking Up A Lot Of My Time.

I Think Atom Heart Mother Was A Good Thing To Have Attempted, But I Don't Really Think The Attempt Comes Off That Well.

Well, I Am David Gilmour, The Voice And Guitar Of Pink Floyd. I Have Been Since I Was 21.

The Old Ways Still Apply. You Can Still Send Tapes To Record Companies, And There Are Record Companies, You Know, There Are One Or Two Of The Record Companies Do Declare Proudly That They Listen To Every Single One That Comes.

It's Really Tough To Get Happy Music Going, You Know?

It's A Very Tempting Thing To Try And Relive Your Glory Days When You Get A Little Older And You Worry That People Have Forgotten All About You.

Obviously Record Companies Tend To Be Following What The Scene Is Rather Than Making The Scene.

Jimi Hendrix Isn't As Good As Me!

I Can Remember A Lot Of Nights Performing In Those Early Years Where You Felt That You Hit Some Good Moments, But A Lot Of The Time You're Thinking, "oh, God, This Isn't Quite Making It." So I Think That Is What Makes You In The End Refine Your View Of Things A Little Bit.

I Don't Know What You Wanna Describe As Rock 'n' Roll, But I Certainly Thought That 60s Stuff, Bob Dylan And The Beatles, Changed The World A Little Bit. But The Effect Seems To Have Retreated. I Think It's Harder Than We Think To Change The World. These Things Go In Cycles. It Doesn't Seem To Have Done An Awful Lot Of Good, Does It? You Know, All The Talk Of Racial Harmony And Equality In The World... We Haven't Got A Long Way Since The 60s.

Where Would Rock And Roll Be Without Feedback?

My Technique Is Laughable At Times. I Have Developed A Style Of My Own, I Suppose, Which Creeps Around. I Don't Have To Have Too Much Technique For It. I've Developed The Parts Of My Technique That Are Useful To Me. I'll Never Be A Very Fast Guitar Player. I Don't Really Know What To Say About My Style. There's Always A Melodic Intent In There.

Make Life An Art Rather Than Art From Life.

The Only Way Artists Can Do Things Is To Do It For Themselves. Trying To Second Guess What The Public Wants Or Likes Is Kind Of A Fool's Game.

I Think Myself That, Rather Like Books, Music Is Meant To Enter Into The Brain, Well Via Your Ears Rather Than Your Eyes But, It's - I Think A Lot More Should Be Left To The Imagination.

I Don't Even Think Whether I Play The Blues Or Not, I Just Play Whatever Feels Right At The Moment. I Also Will Use Any Gadget Or Device That I Find That Helps Me Achieve The Sort Of Sound On The Guitar That I Want To Get.

The Future Is Deterministic In Principle, But Not In Practice.

Everyone Goes To Rotten Schools When They're Kids, Don't They?

I Don't Live My Life On The Road. I'm Getting On A Bit And There's A Lot Of Other Things In My Life. Our Lovely Children And Their Lives. It's More Of A Part-time Business These Days.

The Internet Seems To Be What A Lot Of Independent Bands Are Doing These Days. They're Bypassing The Studio - The Big Studios, Emi And All The Record Companies - And Just Doing It Themselves, Online, Selling Their Stuff, Getting Known Through That Medium.

I Haven't Watched It [the Film 'pink Floyd At Pompeii'] In Years. I Find It Excruciating.

I Don't, Consciously Anyways, Sort Of Listen To Things With The Idea Of Getting Something From Them That I Can Use.

I've Played Rugby At School A Bit. I Didn't Play Football At School; I Played Football After School.

There's No Way Out Of Here.

Tired Of Lying In The Sunshine, Staying Home To Watch The Rain You Are Young And Life Is Long, And There Is Time To Kill Today And Then One Day You Find, Ten Years Has Got Behind You No One Told You Where To Run, You Missed The Starting Gun.

Little Ideas Can Pop Into One's Head At Any Time, And If I'm Being Reasonably Efficient I've Got It Close Enough To Hand, Then I Pop That Little Tiny Moment Of A Few Seconds Down Onto A Tape And Then I Can Forget About It For... Years Sometimes.

I Don't Like To Get Too Specific About Lyrics. It Places Limitations On Them, And Spoils The Listeners' Interpretation.

I'm An Atheist, And I Don't Have Any Belief In An Afterlife.

To Be Honest, I Don't Listen To Groups, Really. Hardly Ever. I Know I'm In One, But I Don't Like Them Very Much.

I Think I'm Still Trying To Be Experimental On Everything I Ever Do, But It's Not As Obviously Way-out And Experimental As What We Were.

I Like Watching Sports, You Know, All Sorts Of Stuff.

Watching Sports

People Being Incredibly Rude And Playing Music Incredibly Badly And Being Incredibly Obnoxious Has Always Been A Teenage Sort Of Thing.

I've Never Had Any Religion. I'd Prefer It If I Did, Really. Even As A Boy I Just Couldn't Make Myself Believe.

I Just Play Intuitively And Work The Same Way In The Studio. I Don't Have Any Magical Effects Or Anything That Helps Me To Get My Particular Sound.

You Don't Want To Believe Everything You Hear.

I Tend To Fly Old Airplanes And Old Sort Of Things That Are Nearly About As Old As Me. Biplanes And Stuff Like That.

The Expectation On Me As A Solo Artist Is Very Different To The Audience's Expectation Of A Pink Floyd Show.

How Much In Life Is Determined, And How Much Is Due To Chance?

Being A Musician, Being A Person Who's Playing Tours And Making Records Is A Part-time Thing For Me At Age. I Did It, I Lived It And I Breathed It Every Day Of My Life For 30-odd Years And Now I Am Slowing Down A Little Bit. But It Does Not Mean That I Am Any Less Intense And Dedicated To The Work That I Am Doing Now. I Have Other Priorities In Life As Well.

Priorities In Life

I Am A Lover Of All Sorts Of Different Music. I Love Blues And Every Piece Of Music That I Have Listened To Has Become An Influence.

I Think Once You've Seen A Song With A Video, It Limits Your Own Mind's Ability To Read Into It Anything Other Than What You've Seen.

I Remember Adrian [maben, Director] Had Lots Of Problems With Red Tape And Dealing With Stuff. I Think We Lost Two Or Three Days. Maybe Those Were The Days We Had To Walk Around The Summit Of Vesuvius, And We Went Around To The Sulfur Pits Where The Ground Is Bubbling. It's Near Here. It's Fantastic.

The Music Tends To Be An Expression Of One's Darker Moments.

I Think I Could Walk Into Any Music Shop Anywhere And With A Guitar Off The Rack, A Couple Of Basic Pedals And An Amp I Could Sound Just Like Me. There's No Devices, Customized Or Otherwise, That Give Me My Sound.

If You Are In A Band Or In Any Situation With Other People There Are Obviously Brilliant Aspects To It, But There Are Also Things That You Start Finding Yourself Tied To.

Finding Yourself

The Idea Of Going Around To Somebody Else's Flat Or House And Sitting Around In A Comfy Room And Having A Really Good Hi-fi System And Listening To A Whole Album All The Way Through, Then Chatting For A Few Minutes, Then Maybe Putting Another Album On . . . Does That Happen Today?

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